Friday, February 18, 2011

The yanking of the teeth is over. It is the day after and I feel pretty damn good. Just a slight ache, no raging pain like I was told there could be. Hell, I have even touched the generic vicodin they gave me.

The process was pretty simple. I began by opting for the nitrous instead of being put under. Some friends recommended being knocked out cold but I wanted to know what what going on. I wanted to experience my teeth coming out. That may sound kinda sick but I am curious that way. I like to know how things work or are done.

They put this nitrous tube over my nose and had me take these deep breaths. After

a couple minutes of this, they started sticking my mouth with a needle to numb up the jaw. At first he just stuck the needle into the bottom gums but then he took some extra time on the upper teeth. The way he was talking it had me thinking he had already yanked the teeth.

Once he was done with local, the doctor left the room to talk to another patient. His cute blonde hygienist stayed behind to make sure I was ok. They told me that I would know the local was working because my bottom lip and chip would become very numb and feel swollen. My tongue would feel like it was taking up the entire area of my mouth. What they didn't tell me was it would feel like I had a gallon of spit building up in the back of my mouth.

As the doc was out of the room, the hygienist made some small talk with me. Asked where I worked, what I did, where I lived. I tried to respond but soon both the nitrou

s and the local anesthesia was kicking in and I sounded like a blithering idiot. Or that kid from Fat Albert.

Soon the doc was back in the room to start the procedure. One thing I noticed about him when I met for the consultation is the strong resemblence to the older brother on The Wonder Years. I began to wonder if Jason Hervey left Hollywood to go to Marquette Dental School and now as going to yank my teeth.

The doc grabbed some tool while the hygienist sucked the spit out of my mouth. He worked on the left lower first. That wasn't going well as he had to keep grabbing different tools. The quick simple procedure suddenly might get hairy. He took out some grinder looking instrument and got into my mouth to do something. Maybe he wsa grinding the base down so he could get to the roots. After a little bit of that he went in and plucked the tooth right out. He added a couple stitches before he was satisfied.

Over to the bottom right and yanked it right out after rocking my head back and forth. The top left seemed to come out with just a bit of effort. The top right though was different. When he applied some pressure on that tooth I heard a crunch. My dentist had said that tooth had a good cavity but with that crunch I was thinking my tooth was disintegrating. But with a little more pressure and a yank it was out.

They popped some gauze in my mouth and had me suck on some oxygen. Within 45 minutes I was up and out of there with some prescriptions, more gauze and ice packs. It would take about 5 hours for the numbness in my lip to go away. Until then I only dribbled a little bit of spit and blood in the Walgreens. I think I'll spare you that story.

Today I felt pretty good. A little bit of soreness but that expected. I think I'll go about the day as normal, maybe even go buy some new shoes. Sadly though, I don't think I can drink until at least tomorrow. Then I may go on a bender.